Nordstrom Café- Downtown

I was downtown shopping the other day and stopped in for lunch at the Bistro inside Nordstrom. I was surprised to find the menu totally different from the one at the Fashion Mall, and also intrigued.

I really like the restaurant at the Fashion Mall, and actually eat there quite frequently for lunch. I hadn’t eaten at the one downtown in quite awhile. I looked over the menu and saw they had a shrimp Louie salad which is one of my favorite salads in the world. I knew from the menu this one would be a little different because the shrimp was grilled, but everything else sounded like all the things I love about this salad (eggs, avocado, Louie dressing) so I thought I would give it a go.

The good things about this salad were the dressing and the fact that the lettuce was tossed with the dressing. I love it when a salad is dressed. The avocado and bacon were mixed into the tossed leaves in good proportion, and the eggs and shrimp were sitting on top (the hard boiled egg quartered). They also serve a decent roll on the side with butter if you want it.

Unfortunately the bad things were the fact that the avocado was seriously under-ripe (ugh, I hate hard pieces of avocado) and the shrimp just didn’t do it for me. It was ok, but it was slightly overcooked, and I don’t know, maybe I am a purist, but I like my shrimp on my shrimp Louie to be cold.

So while I appreciate the fact that they are attempting the salad, unfortunately it didn’t come together for me. If they had just gotten some ripe avocado, the salad would have been much better, even with the shrimp as it was. And I did like the dressing, once I squeezed a lemon over it (which I always do with a Louie anyway).

So while shopping at the Nordstrom downtown is probably better, I think eating at the Fashion Mall location is much better…especially those fries with that olive aioli dip…mmmm…. (Just for fun, I posted a picture of my last sandwich there too—that olive dip would be good spread on just about anything!)

Nordstrom Café
130 S. Meridian Street
Indy 46225
317/636-2121
(No website for the restaurant specifically)